We really love France. Each year we travel during the hollidays through the country and each time we discover new spots. France is such a big and diverse country that we expect never to get bored.

And sometimes we encounter special things. In the mountains we found on certain spots the Great Yellow Gentian. A slender yellow coloured flower. Sometimes we found complete fields filled with them.

And so we stumbled into Gentian Liqueur. This Liqueur is made from the roots of the plant. Els really liked it. I did not care for it.

First I will give you some info on the Great Yellow Gentian. I found this information on Wikipedia.

The Gentian (yellow) can be found on chalkground in mountains till 2200 meters. The plant grwos very slowly and starts blossoming for the first time after 10 years. She can however become 40 to 60 years in age. The plant is a protected species throughout the whole of europe but is cultivated in france for making liqueur. The liqueur is made from the roots.

The Great Yellow gentian is called Gentiane Jaune in France.

Now this web-log is about making wine and not about making liqueur. So that is where this is getting too.

Normally I hate shopping. However I stop objecting when I see those gigantic french supermarkets in which you can buy every thing from food to television sets and even sometimes cars. In these supermarkets you can find the unexpected.

And so in the summer of 2009 I found Gentiansyrup. I did not hesitate one moment and bought two bottles of a liter.

Why just two bottles. Well the label indicated that you could dillute the syrup 5 times to make a lemonade. That indicates that you can make 5 liter lemonade with one bottle. So two bottles would be sufficient for 10 liter. And that is what I wanted to make: 10 liter gentianwine.

Back from our holliday I did not find the time to start the wine. So I stocked the bottles in my garage. And so I forgot about them alltogether.

May 2010 I stumbled upon the bottles in my garage and decided to make the wine.

Day 1

When making wine from syrup you can expect to have a wine with little body. I had to adress that problem.

In my freezer I (almost) always stock some frozen bananas. Bananas give body to a wine but also provide some sugar and nutrients. Bananas help starting and during fermentation and even help clearing a wine. Yeast really loves bananas.

I always divide the bananas in parts and freeze themm in package of about half a kilo. So I took a package out of the freezer to thaw. That will take about 24 hour.

So I had plenty time to make a yeaststarter. I made it from 1 liter applejuice (which contains about 100 gram sugar) to which I added 100 gram sugar and nutrients.

A yeaststarter invades your must with a large healthy yeast colony. The advantage is that you know you have a healthy yeast and that your must will start fermenting in a really short time. This makes sure that any chance that your must will spoil is minimised. If you want to read more about how and why to make a yeaststarter click here

Day 2

The yeaststarter was indeed fermenting vigorously. Just what I hoped for. Therefore I could go on with making the wine.

The bananas had thawed so they were also ready for use.I first started with measuring the bananas. The thawed bananas weighed 625 gram and had a volume of 200 ml. These are figures you need to take in account when making the wine.

Next the calculations.

To get 1% alcohol in 1 liter wine there has to be 18 gram sugar present in the must. So to get 10 liter wine of 11% you will need:10 (liter) x 11% x 18 gram = 1980 gram sugar.

Unfortunately I did not know how much sugar was present in the Gentian syrup.

So I did know I would need to have 1980 gram sugar in my must. So what I needed to do is to keep some space in my must for adding sugar later.

Well we know that 1 kilo sugar takes a lot of volume. This is due to the space between the granules. A kilo sugar however dissolved in water only takes 0,6 liter in volume. So the 1980 gram sugar my must should contain has a volume of 1980 x 0,6 = 1.88 liter. Lets round that to 1,2 liter.

Beware. I did not actually add sugar. I just calculated how much space I needed to reserve to add sugar if that might be needed. That is 1,2 liter.

The SG was right at the nose. Without any sugar additions the SG was measured at 1085.

That is enough to make a good wine. The Gentian syrup contained a lot of sugar. Well that was to be expected. All syrups contain loads of sugar.

Next the acid.

The acid was measured by means of titration and showed an acidity of 1.

Measuring acidity is not complicated, you just have to know how it is done. If you do want to know how to measure acidity you can read my article about it byclicking here.

So there was not enough acid present to make a decent wine. I needed an acidity of 6.

At an acidity of 6 there is 6 gram acid per liter present in the wine. My measurements showed that there was 1 gram acid present. So I needed to ad 5 gram acid per liter. I was making 10 liter and therefore had to add 10 x 5 gram = 50 gram acid.

As I had no idea how the wine would turn out I decided to play safe. I decided to add a mix of 20 gram citric acid, 20 gram tartaric acid and 10 gram malic acid.

Next the volume.

I already had 7,8 liter must to which I had to add 1 liter yeast starter. That sums up to 8,8 liter.

So I had to add 1,2 liter. Adding plain water would dillute my must and SG. So I needed to add water and enough sugar to get 11% alcohol in that amount of water. For 1 liter that is 11% x 18 gram = 198 gram.

So I added 1 liter water and 200 gram sugar.

My total volume was now about 10 liter.

The primary was covered with a cheesecloth fastened with a rubber band. During the first days of fermentation it is advisable not to close the primary with a lid and an airlock. A plain chhesecloth let some air in and makes it easier to stirr the juice at least twice every day.

Day 3

The must was already fermenting vigorously.

Day 6.

The must had now been fermenting for 5 days.

First I pulled out the nylonstocking with the bananapulp and slightly pressed it by hand to squeeze the juice out. Dont squueze to har. You juust want the juice out and not the pulp.

Then I transferred the must to a carboy.

Day 7

The airlock was happily blupping along.

1 Month later

The wine had finished fermenting. Just before my holliday I bottled it and stashed in the room under my house.

2 Years later

Two years afther I made this wine I pulled a bottle out of my 'winecellar'.

The wine had great balance, enough body and was fresh acidic. A real summerwine that needs to be consumed cool.

It is not really my kind of wine but Els really loves it.

So if you are goi9ng on a holliday and find some Gentian syrup do not hesitate and act. The flavor of this wine is not to my liking, however I would make it again for Els, and maybe you will love it just like Els does.